November 2, 2015

Wesley van Helmond wins at MIO Championship Rd1

Wesley van Helmond wins at MIO Championship Rd1

The opening round of the International Indoor Off-road Cup held at the Dutch Model Indoor Oss track attracted some 100 drivers to compete in several electric off-road classes. In the 2WD Buggy category Bart Mullink came out fastest after the qualifiers in front of Wesley van Helmond, Tom Maquel and Olvier Speith. After having tyre problems in A1 Wesley van Helmond (TLR) stroke back in A2 and he would ultimately take the overall win from Oliver Speith (Schumcher) in second and Tom Maquel (Team C) in third place.

Image: Wesley van Helmond


November 2, 2015

Kazuya Tanaka wins JMRCA 1/8th Buggy Nationals

Kazuya Tanaka wins JMRCA 1/8th Buggy Nationals

This year’s JMRCA All-Japan 1/8th Nitro Off-road Championships were held in the Chiba prefecture over the weekend. Kyosho’s Naoto Matsukura would take the TQ spot after the qualifiers in front of team mate Kazuya Tanaka. In the final Kazuya would then hold the upper hand, adding another national championship to his belt following his nationals win in 2012. TQ holder Naoto would end the main on the runner-up spot.

Source: Kyosho [kyosho.com]


November 2, 2015

EFRA releases 2016 race calendar

EFRA releases 2016 race calendar

Following last weekend’s EFRA AGM, the European governing body has announced the (provisional) dates for next year’s European Championships. The season kicks off in April with the 1/12th scale Euros that are again being held in Trencin, Slovakia while the Summer season starts with the 1/8th On-road and 1/8th Off-road B Euros in May and June respectively. The Nitro Buggy Euros A in July starts a month of a total of seven European Championships including the Electric Touring Car, 1/10th Electric Buggy and 1/8th On-road A while the 1/8th E-Buggy and 40+ Euros round out the calendar in September. Several classes also saw clarifications or additions of existing rules with the EFRA now clarified on the status of EFRA A and B licences and the allowed drivers for the respective Euros. The 1/8th E-Buggy class saw an amendment of the existing bodyshell rules with the bodies now  have “to have a real car shape” and they have “to be able to carry the EFRA Numbers at the front and both sides as high as possible”. As for the electric on-road side of things EFRA has added a 1/10th 21.5T Formula class that will be part of the European Championship and that is run with “open” 21.5T motors and blinky speed controllers. Full AGM details can be found here.

Click here to view the provisional race calendar


October 30, 2015

Kyle Francis triples at Western Australian titles

Kyle Francis triples at Western Australian titles

For the first time the Western Australia titles were held outside the metropolitan area in Kalgoorlie, some 580km from the Capital, Perth. In the Nitro Buggy Kyle Francis took the win in the main final after an eventful 45 minutes. Coming from the 3 spot on the grid, Kyle got caught up in someone else’s crash, dropping him to 11th. Slowly the comeback started and he began gaining positions and the gap to the first placed driver was 18 seconds. A few laps later and it was back to 15, then 12. Kyle had the fastest car out there, it was just a case of keeping it on four wheels and having enough time to reel in the leader. Another 10 minutes passed and the gap was down to 6 seconds, then 3 seconds. The race commentator was getting excited.

Continue reading here


October 30, 2015

South African On-Road Gas Nationals Rd5 – Report

South African On-Road Gas Nationals Rd5 – Report

The season finale of the 2015 South African On-Road Gas National Championship took place at RC Zone in Middleburg, about two hours away from Tshwane, Pretoria. A favourite among the 200mm drivers for its technical layout, the track is fast and unforgiving with a brick wall barrier on the outside of the fast “horseshoe” section, which means that one small mistake would send the cars into the wall. The track offered a very high grip level all weekend, with some drivers complaining about too much grip later in the late afternoon. With the national series running a concurrent separate championship called the “Sprint” championship, which is based on qualifying results, first decisions in the championship would made when qualifiers kicked off on Saturday morning. This time the event had attracted more 200mm entries than 1/8 scale, which was not the norm for a national event and only four entries for the 235mm class means this class will likely not be run in the future. Mike Meyers would again dominate over Derrick Plank, Peter Plint and Tony George to take the TQ and seal his spot as Sprint champion for 2015.

Continue reading the report here


October 29, 2015

Xray Work.Shop Czech Republic – Announcement

Xray Work.Shop Czech Republic – Announcement

Xray have announced another of their famous Work.Shop events with the next one being held in the Czech Republic on Saturday the 7th of November. Held in the sport hall in Kolin during the opening round of the Czech Xray Winter Series, Xray’s Martin Hudy will be present to give setup help for the T4’16 touring car while factory team driver Martin Bayer is there to introduce the all-new Xray XB2 1/10th 2WD off-road buggy. More information about the workshop can be found here.


October 28, 2015

Lemieux & Birchfield win at Stock Wars 2015

Lemieux & Birchfield win at Stock Wars 2015

The recent Stock Wars 2015 race was hosted by Middle River Hobbies in Middle River Maryland, on a small to medium size high grip carpet track. The race format was Pro and Open stock classes with practice all day on Friday, three qualifiers on Saturday, and one qualifier on Sunday followed by single finals. Classes were 17.5 TC Pro, 17.5 TC Open, 17.5 1/12 Pro, 17.5 1/12 Open, USGT and F1. Celebrity announcer Scotty Ernst made the trip to add to the already big anticipation and excitement of the event. In the Pro Touring Car division Paul Lemieux set the pace from Q1 on. Paul had serious challenges in qualifying by Kyle Klingforth but was able to TQ by a moderate amount. Robby Dodge would also throw in his hat for TQ at times but would round out the top three in qualifying.

Continue reading the report here


October 28, 2015

Alberta Touring Series Rd1 – Report

Alberta Touring Series Rd1 – Report

The second season of the Alberta Touring Series started out in Calgary at the Calgary Horseshoe Club. The Calgary Area Remote Control Auto Racing Club put on a great show and in the Touring Car Modified class it was an exciting battle between TQ Wayne Mah (Awesomatix) and Pete Toszer (Team Associated). Wayne ran into early trouble in the opening laps but recovered to have a back and forth battle with Pete in the later part of the race. It would come down to the last lap with Wayne edging by Pete in the last couple of corners to lead to  the line by a few car lengths. Matt Wilfort (Team Associated) would have a battle of his own to hold of his challenger to come in 3rd.

Continue reading the report here


Tonisport
Mibosport
LC Racing
VP Racing
T-Works